Titans' Michael Griffin vows to continue aggressive play

Safety says NFL considers him a 'repeat offender' of illegal hits

Raiders tight end Mychal Rivera loses his helmet after being hit by Titans safety Michael Griffin during a game last season at Oakland. Griffin was suspended one game for the hit.(Photo: Ben Margot / AP)

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Titans safety Michael Griffin was suspended one game last season for an illegal hit.

Griffin and veteran Bernard Pollard said the Titans would continue to play aggressively.

Safeties Brandon Meriweather and Michael Griffin entered the NFL in 2007, just five spots apart in the draft.

Like Meriweather, Griffin has long dreadlocks that hang from the back of his helmet.

Griffin probably would like to see the connections end there. Like Meriweather, however, the Titans veteran is in the NFL's crosshairs because of illegal hits to defenseless players. He didn't need a reminder he's on watch.

Then on Monday, the NFL suspended the Redskins safety for the first two games of the regular season because of an illegal hit to the head.

"Whelp 2 game suspension," Griffin posted on Twitter after the Meriweather news. "Got to be more careful this year."

The truth is it's been on Griffin's mind since last season, when he was suspended for one game — and forfeited a $205,882 paycheck — for his helmet-dislodging hit against Raiders tight end Mychal Rivera. The league said it was his second such violation and his fourth <FZ,1,0,57>since 2011.

Griffin, who talked to Meriweather on Monday, is fully aware he's a big hit away from a longer suspension and bigger deduction from his bank account. But he is adamant that he won't change the way he plays.

"You can't do that. Playing tentative in this league is the first thing that will get you out of here," Griffin said. "I am going to do everything I can to play within the rules and do whatever I can to help my team win games. But if it happens, it happens. … My job is to keep people from catching the ball in the middle of the field, and I have to do my job."

Video of the Rivera hit showed Griffin lowered his helmet to dislodge the ball, but it also appears the safety tried to turn his shoulder to avoid helmet-to-helmet contact.

It didn't help that he'd been fined earlier in the season and was labeled "a repeat offender," Griffin said. The league told him it's up to defensive players to make the hit legal "no matter what the offensive player does."

He also was suspended for two games last season, but on appeal the penalty was reduced to one game. He has been fined five times for illegal hits to defenseless players, including $42,000 for one against Packers running back Eddie Lacy last season.

It's a bad time to play defense, Titans safety Bernard Pollard said. His message to Griffin: Play your game, and "let the chips fall where they may."

Pollard thinks the league has gone overboard trying to protect offensive players. In his first season as a Titan last year, the veteran was flagged multiple times and fined $67,500.

"Are we going to crunch up or ball up when a guy comes across the middle because of these rules? No," Pollard said. "If you come across the middle, you are going to get hit, and if our helmet happens to hit you, then so be it. We are going to be the type of defense where if you come across the middle, you are going to get hit, and hit hard.

"We are not here to appease (NFL Commissioner) Roger Goodell or that (rules committee) panel because that panel doesn't understand football. We have to play ball. We can't worry about all the bull crap."

When NFL referees visited Saint Thomas Sports Park earlier this month, Titans defensive coordinator Ray Horton used it as an opportunity to discuss rules with his players.

"I don't coach dirty football. I don't coach hitting them in the head; I don't coach hitting a quarterback in the knee. We coach proper football so we don't get hurt, nor do they get hurt," Horton said. "Are we trying to be as aggressive as we can within the rules? Absolutely.

"I don't want to see (Griffin) lose a penny. I don't want to see him out of the game where we lose one of our better players. … We coach safe football, and as long as he does what we teach him to do, he'll be fine."

Griffin, heading into his eighth NFL season, stands to lose a lot of money if he's found guilty of hitting a defenseless player again.

With a $6.2 million base salary, a one-game suspension would cost $364,706. A two-game suspension: $729,412.

Griffin said it's most important to be in the lineup every week, but he admitted it's been difficult to deal with the change in mind-set since he first entered the league, when defenders were trained to deliver hard hits.

"You lived to look for big shots," he said. "Now they are teaching guys to play a different way. … You have no choice. I'm going to do my best to play within the rules. I'll do the best I can and if it happens, it happens."